A family-run property management and apartment development company, Lépine Apartments has been breaking new ground in multi-family real estate and creating new rental markets in eastern Ontario for more than 60 years, building low-maintenance residences while also contributing to the ecologically friendly growth of communities. Surrounded by greenery, an abundance of natural light, and modern heating and cooling systems, Lépine Apartments strives to maintain a focus on conservation, ecology, green living, and durability.

“Another synonym of sustainability is durability,” Lépine says. “We work in rental properties, so durability is a must. Housing is a very expensive product, and you need time to amortize its costs. If in time you do not have a durable product, then you’re back to square one having to replace it again.”

Historically, he says, structures that have stood the test of time are largely made of stone. “In the ancient societies, it’s all stone. You’ll find very few pieces of lumber, if any. Stone and mason concrete product will last multiple centuries, whereas wood will last only a few generations.”

While the common perception is that wood is “greener,” for Lépine, sustainability involves creating structures that will last much longer and have a less damaging impact on the environment. And concrete doesn’t have to be synonymous with ugly.

“We take it literally that you can build a beautiful house to any scale, but if the yard looks like a dump or a parking lot, it looks bad,” Lépine says. “You need to have nice landscaping surrounding a house and the same thing goes for any building. Whether it’s sod, or planting shrubs or trees, we can dress up our massive buildings a bit similarly to the way you would treat a simple bungalow.”

For Lépine, this includes having the vast majority of parking underground, essentially removing It from view. In cases where the company has to extend parking outside the tower’s footprint, the team creates a podium situation and simply puts backfill over the concrete slab, a foot or two of soil on top, and plantings on top of the podiums.

“If you look at the building, it looks like it’s got a massive courtyard of green, not a parking lot,” says Lépine. “Too many places are done with parking lots that then become a coat of asphalt over your spare area or lawn area. So you’ve got concrete and tar on the rooftop of the building and then asphalt and concrete for sidewalks—that’s not too green in my books,” he says.

Parking lots are going to be there for a “very, very long time,” so putting them underground rationalizes the use of land while increasing the density of development done on large lot areas. “It also looks better. It’s more attractive,” Lépine adds. “It’s like the dream house with a white picket fence. It’s not about the fence itself; it’s about the courtyard you have around the house. You want to have your house and your property around it feel like this. You can implement that same logic for 200 units stacked one on top of the other.”

Design has changed over the decades, of course, with new techniques arising and desired styles evolving, but creating a livable, healthy, and sustainable space remains a top priority for the company. One trend Lépine has noted of late is the floor-to-ceiling windows, which, from an ecological standpoint, are impractical.

“This scaling of your windows has to be designed for people living inside, not for people outside looking at the building, which we see too often,” he says. “They’re also the weakest point of the building envelope. No matter what engineering techniques are used, it’s still glass, and glass is weaker than a solid surface that is properly thermally insulated.”

Lépine aims to reduce the ratio of glass in a building to an amount where, when you’re inside the unit, you still have nice views and bright sunlight, but it’s much more ecologically sound. “With floor-to-ceiling windows, you’re not only reducing your wall space, but your thermal efficiency. A solid wall over time will outperform glass.”

For the company, prefabricated concrete is also high on its list of requirements, but the overall industry isn’t quite there yet. “It’s going to take centuries before there’s more and more prefabrication; it has to be an evolution,” Lépine says. “We have to look at it by components: what type of components can we pre-assemble in that plant and then bring to a site for a more mechanical type of assembly line where we can improve quality—not only quality control, or speed and efficiency, but also the durability of the product we build.”

Speed of construction alone should never be the focus, he adds, even if it means saving a few months of interest or gaining a few extra months of rent. “The end game should be to look at the quality of the building and its durability and cost efficiency,” Lépine says. “Every piece of energy you save is less money you’ll have to spend over the long run.”

If you think the cost of electricity is high now, he adds, what is it going to be 50 years from now? Or just 10 years from now?

“It’s important to try to maximize the efficiencies of every component of a building, whether internal or in the common areas or the portions that are the resident base, because it all feeds into the system,” Lépine says. “It’s good to balance everything out and use the most efficient techniques there are. LED lighting came up a number of years ago, and it seemed great, but on the sustainability side, when the fixture burns out, I can’t change a bulb; I have to scrap the fixture and change the whole thing.”

Marrying the two ideas of efficiency and durability is much more difficult than people realize and something many developers don’t understand. “It’s a big balancing act. And when it comes to the total package of pricing a building, how do we translate that into a rent the market can afford? It’s a major challenge.”

Shrink wrapping properties to try to minimize costs is a popular method, he adds, but in the long run, humans can’t stay in a small, confined space for very long, before migrating in a quest for renewal, which in turn puts more wear and tear on buildings.

“As a society, I don’t think that’s the ideal solution; people need space. As builders, if we build a larger proportion of larger units, we know those are going to be more stabilized, people will stay there longer, and buildings will maintain them better with less wear and tear on them.”

Essentially, it’s about the quality of life for the residents, the community, and the citizens for Lépine while still aiming to succeed as a business in an industry where financial viability is key to obtaining financing.

“When you build quality, eventually the market recognizes it,” he says. “You need to brand yourself otherwise people forget who did it. The market’s the market. There’s a high demand for inexpensive stuff, but in residential construction If you build too much cheap stuff, then you’re kicking the can down the road and then a couple of generations later this stuff all becomes derelict, it falls apart.”

While recent—and ongoing—challenges such as COVID, sluggish housing sales, less disposable income, and high interest rates have plagued the industry at large, Lépine is hopeful for the company’s future, but is concerned about the excessive push for going green for green’s sake.

“The young generation is buying into this too much and supporting politicians way too much,” he says. “They cannot even afford what they wish, and the younger generation is shooting themselves in the foot.”

New technologies can take generations to make a difference and in the meantime the push for environmentalism—and the speed involved in doing so—can do more harm than good. “Like any industry, we can do any number of things, but give us the time and the people to do it. All these things are going to cost more, and it can’t be done overnight.”

Governmental support is essential and not always easily or quickly attained, especially in the environmental realm. When attempting to install solar panels on rooftops, for instance, in some cases it took more than a year for Lépine to gain provincial authority and receive the proper meter for the base build.

“We can provide solutions, but we need time,” Lépine says. “Engineering is not up to par; they can’t do the metering properly for a utility company and they’re trying to shove it down our throats. All of these things are created to put in these green initiatives, and what’s worse is when municipalities try to impose it at the permit stage.”

These impositions, he adds, are project “killers” that make developers think twice about proceeding as the projection of the cost of building goes through the roof. But despite the bureaucratic roadblocks, Lépine remains optimistic.

“We have a very far long-term outlook on things,” he says. “Building a building is a feat by itself; it’s a complex project. But building a company, that’s a lot. Building a company that will last for centuries, that’s our hope.”

Some of the approaches he hopes to take as the company grows include creating its own REITs for portfolio of property management, which will help grow the shareholding potential. “Those are some of the stepping stones in growing the enterprise, but it’s about holding these values and implementing them on construction sites so they turn into buildings that are then operated in the long run for decades and generations to come.”

Population growth is not going to slow in upcoming decades, which will lead to even more demand for affordable, sustainable housing—and Lépine plans to be there. “I would like the company to be around in the centuries to come, so these are the principles and values we uphold. We need to hold the line and keep on it. It’s not just a money game; it’s for the long run.”

The post Building Durability: A Future Carved in Stone<p class="company">Lépine Apartments</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Living Stone Design + Build is one of five Sullivan Family businesses, all of which work together to ensure a complete solution for the client. Atelier Maison & Co. provides home furnishings, including its own exclusive line of green pieces. The award-winning interior design firm ID.ology Interiors & Design boasts a nationwide presence. Believing that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,’ the Sullivan family also founded the non-profit Asheville Design District to create a designated design district that supports local, family-owned design businesses. And finally, Collaborative Living Magazine is the publication that keeps the community abreast of the latest news pertaining to the Sullivan family of companies and the industry in general.

All of these organizations are committed to the environment as they collaborate to deliver a full suite of services. This commitment goes back at least 15 years, to when the Green Built Alliance first approached company President Sean Sullivan. “I thought, why would I not want to build better each and every time?” he recalls of the encounter. “And so, we decided to start building certified homes. We build each home to the Energy Star and green certifications.”

The team has had to overcome challenges in order to stick to this commitment. “It was terrible timing,” Sullivan says. “The recession hit and we were left with this model home that we had and no sales team to deploy in a new neighborhood. And so we went ahead and bought the house ourselves and used it as a model home. And we lived there for seven years.”

This challenging situation proved serendipitous when it helped the company improve upon its practices. “Even though we certified it green, we were shocked to discover upon selling it that the house had a dangerously high radon level,” says Sullivan. “And so this made us pause and pivot and really realize that we don’t know what we don’t know. Even though we had been designing green and we had been building green, we weren’t aware of other factors that were contributing to poor indoor air quality. And indoor air quality is super important because when you’re building green or you’re building energy-efficient, you’re building a really tight box. Whether it’s radon, or off-gassing from furniture or building products, or things that are brought in after construction, we became very interested in it. And so we pivoted, and we started working toward finding products that the client could use in their house, primarily furnishings that were safe.”

The team has found great success in providing environmentally friendly products to its clients. “We launched ID.ology Interiors & Design so that they could work with our clients to find all of these selections and make sure that the specifications for a home were safe,” Sullivan says.

In addition, Laura Sullivan, the other half of the Sullivan husband and wife team, began sourcing non-toxic furnishings. “It was very difficult to find, but our clients were receiving it very well. After doing that for a couple years, we really started to feel guilty that we were keeping this to ourselves; it was just such a hard product to find in the marketplace. And that’s really what inspired us to open up the furniture store Atelier Maison & Co. And once we did, we came up with this concept of designing green, building green, and teaching our clients to live green, which is what we ultimately call Whole Living,” says Sean Sullivan.

“We partner with Living Stone in all of their builds,” Laura Sullivan says of the interior design firms. “What we do from a design standpoint is make selections that are low- or non-toxic, such as the flooring, the cabinetry, paints and finishes, interior doors. With all those additional materials and finishes, we’re here to make sure that they are good quality, as well as healthy, and will contribute to good indoor air quality,” she explains.

“Furniture pieces are also constructed with a lot of the same materials as home construction: plywood, glues, adhesives, stains, finishes, paint, that sort of thing,” she continues. “We want to make sure that we have offerings for our clients that are healthy to maintain their wellness as much as we can impact from an interior standpoint.”

To accomplish the Whole Living mission, the team focuses on three target groups. “We have our external clients, the ones who pay us,” Sean Sullivan says. “We have our internal clients, which is our team, and we have our community. We want to build happier, healthier lives in all three audiences.”

This means building green no matter what the circumstance. “Every home we build is going to be certified Energy Star and certified green,” he shares. “We don’t ask the clients if they want that as an option; we just build to those standards and we go ahead and certify it. And when we do that, it gives our clients a five percent discount on their power and gas bill for the Energy Star certification. The green certification makes their house worth more than homes that aren’t certified green.”

But that’s not all. “We’ve gone deeper, a lot deeper than just those two certifications,” he says. “We really focus on the indoor air quality and we’re able to educate our clients all the way through the process so that, hopefully, they will buy non-toxic furniture. At the same time, they’ll also consider anything and everything that they bring into their house after they move in. And for our clients that have any type of chemical sensitivity, we have a couple other certifications.”

Living Stone Design + Build has won industry recognition for its commitment to green building and to excellence overall. In 2023, the National Association of Home Builders named the company Custom Home Builder of the Year. “It’s definitely the most humbling recognition we’ve ever received,” Sean Sullivan says. “To be esteemed among our peers is the greatest recognition we could ask for.”

He credits the team’s win to the “pursuit of health for our clients, building happier, healthier lives for all three audiences, and what the Sullivan family of companies has accomplished. But in particular, our commitment to and involvement with the National Association of Home Builders, the North Carolina Home Builders Association, and the Builders Association of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

Equally important has been the company’s “pursuit of education and teaching other builders through the North Carolina Builders Institute.” The company launched an internal educational component to teaching its teams based on the NCBI format, called the SFC Learning Institute. “Sean has taken his education and his knowledge as a master builder, and he’s bringing that to our teams internally to make sure they are educated on the latest trends in green building and design, project management, and estimating,” Laura Sullivan says of the institute.

Another factor that earned the company recognition is its First Fridays program, which is another “extension of our mission building happier, healthier lives for our community,” Sean Sullivan says. On the first Friday of every month, employees are paid to spend time supporting one of the three charities that the company has partnered with: Western Carolina Rescue Mission, Bounty & Soul, and The Black Mountain Home for Children.

Now, the team is ready to take its mission of Whole Living to even more clients. The Asheville location is relatively close to the South Carolina border, making expansion into that state an obvious next step. “One of the communities that we build in, The Cliffs, has one development in North Carolina, and the other six of the seven are in South Carolina,” Sean Sullivan says. This Lakes Region of South Carolina is an ideal location, “being such a dense community for building.” The region “has really drawn us to expanding our territories.”

The team has also expanded into Cashiers, North Carolina, with the opening of a second Atelier Maison & Co. store.

With such a strong track record and the support of an entire family of companies, Living Stone Design + Build is more than ready for the coming growth. This environmentally sustainable business will be one to watch as it continues to blaze an ever-growing trail within the industry.

The post Building Happier, Healthier Lives<p class="company">Living Stone Design + Build</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

A family business
A family business through and through, Nordic Structures started manufacturing mining timbers in 1961 as Les Chantiers de Chibougamau, growing to become a significant lumber producer over the next four decades, before creating the Nordic Structures brand in 2001, bringing it to what it is today. “As a privately held company, we can adhere to a singular vision and a strong dedication to advancing the best and highest use of the product,” says Jean-Marc Dubois, Director of Business Development, of the company’s approach. Like many legacy companies, Nordic Structures started from humble beginnings—in this case, a team of five men and a portable sawmill.

While the third generation is coming up through the ranks, the founder of the company, Lucien Filion, 96, maintains an active presence in the operations, and is often found on the production floor discussing operational efficiency with shop supervisors.

Filion is a legendary trailblazer in this industry. In his time, he has guided the company through difficult times and together with its leadership team, led the firm to where it is today: a billion-dollar enterprise with a bright future. In fact, it was he who designed the proprietary production equipment that fabricates Enviro-Lam, Nordic’s unique small-block glulam product.

This process enables Nordic to make use of smaller components, including side-cuts and tree tips, effectively utilizing up to 20 percent more of the tree than possible through typical sawmilling operations. “Instead of leaving fibre in the forest to decay and become part of the carbon-positive cycle, we take this material and transform it into mass timber elements,” Dubois explains.

Staunchly committed to its regional community, the company recently partnered with local First Nations in establishing Cree Lumber, specializing in dimensional lumber. Today, it operates sustainably managed and harvested forests over more than 15 million acres—an area equal to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts combined—while employing a team of over 1700 throughout Northern Quebec. Over the past decade, it acquired additional sawmills in Landrienne, LaSarre, and Bearn. And as part of its goal to be self-sufficient, Nordic completely rebuilt a shuttered Kraft pulp plant in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, whose wood chips are sourced from its own family of sawmills and whose operations return over 30 megawatts of carbon-negative electricity back to the regional grid from its operations.

Nordic utilizes the waste by-products of its operations to power its kiln operations, and boasts a total of only five percent fossil fuel usage in its mass timber manufacturing. The firm feels secure knowing it runs the company at optimal performance while protecting the environment so well that its operational global warming potential is negligible. Despite these worthy statistics, the company plans to reduce this number even further in the next five to ten years. Indeed, part of the company’s goal is to capture carbon in high volumes by sequestering greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in these mass timber elements. As a vertically integrated organization, the company has full control over the entire process, from the cultivation of its trees to the engineering of its mass timber, up to and including delivery and installation of the mass timber structure.

To fulfill this mission, its project and engineering division comprises 75 members of staff who make up four dedicated project teams alongside sales, estimating, and a research and development group. Staffing such a complex business is no mean feat; the company scouts globally for talent to ensure that it has the stable, quality labour force needed to run an operation of this size.

“At our nerve centre in Montreal, we have a virtual United Nations of designers and engineers. In addition to Canadian and American staff, we have people from Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, and further afield,” says Dubois. “Our manufacturing facilities have also established hiring missions in the Philippines,” with scores of highly skilled workers relocating to the region to bolster the staffing needs of a growing business.

An ethos of innovation
The company’s penchant for innovation and a single-minded pursuit for value-added production manifested itself in the late 1990s when it began fingerjointing operations, then manufacturing I-joists for the North American residential and light-commercial market, and subsequently looked to manufacturing glue-laminated beams to complement their product mix.

A significant factor in the company’s innovation is the uniqueness of source material itself, and directly attributable to the harsh climate and difficult growing conditions of the northern boreal forest where the company manages over 15 million acres of timberland. The short growing season results in relatively small trees with very tight growth rings. While this meager fibre limits it to primarily producing 2×3 and 2×4 dimension lumber, this high density makes it ideal for engineered lumber products like I-joists, glulam beams, and cross-laminated timber, which Nordic Structures began manufacturing in 2010.

While the utilization of mass timber had been emerging in Europe, mass timber was a novelty that was not considered viable for domestic construction projects, and orders were not forthcoming. Eager to demonstrate the viability of mass timber structures, the firm decided to build one of its own, and designed, engineered, and erected the first mass timber multi-residential project in North America: a 24-unit, four-storey condominium complex erected in just 22 days with five men and a crane operator onsite. This experience underpins the company’s marketing approach: fully integrated solutions-based turnkey construction.

Approaching the concept with an open mind and a talent for out-of-the-box thinking, Nordic Structures has made huge strides toward proving that sustainable mass timber is part of the global answer to reducing the carbon footprint of the building industry and creating healthier, safer construction for the world’s communities.

As such, its expert craftsmen are adept at developing and successfully executing unusual, challenging projects where lateral reasoning, problem-solving skills, and hands-on knowledge are essential to deliver on the architectural vision of motivated designers. “We were the first North American manufacturer of cross-laminated timber panels. We have proven that we are up to the challenge when it comes to complex projects,” says Dubois of the company’s ongoing collaboration with leading architectural and structural engineering firms.

Thanks to continued improvements in design, manufacturing, and material technologies, the company brings innovation and quality of product to state-of-the-art processes in the construction of buildings that, traditionally, were made of concrete and steel. Not only is its mass timber more sustainable; it is also better for the physical and psychological health of those who construct such buildings and those who occupy them. In addition to mass timber’s biophilic properties, ambient temperature and moisture levels are naturally better balanced for human comfort throughout the seasons, giving these structures a better comfort profile than other building methods.

While it has proven ideal for commercial construction, mass timber is also being heralded by a growing cadre of enthusiasts in academic settings across North America. Nordic Structures’ products are featured in the John W. Olver Design Building at UMass Amherst, the first post-secondary mass timber structure in the U.S. Since then, Nordic has delivered projects at Ivy League schools UPenn, Princeton, Brown, and its sister college RISD.

Certainly, there have been many achievements in the company’s tenure. Nordic Structures constructed one of the largest postsecondary education buildings in Texas, at San Jacinto College in Pasadena. Then there’s the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy. “Nordic Structures’ suite of services and our product and approach are engaging people across North America because of our willingness to engage, provide solutions, and look outside the box,” Dubois says of the company’s knack for drawing top customers. “We’re not the only ones doing mass timber, but we’re the only ones doing it the way we do.”

Currently, construction is wrapping up at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, just in time to begin the first mass timber campus building at UCal, across the bay, in Berkeley.

Nordic Structures has also completed numerous projects for Canadian universities, including Limberlost at George Brown College, and Centennial College, both in Toronto, as well as scores of academic and athletic projects across Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces. “It’s gratifying that more educational bodies are leaning toward carbon-negative buildings of mass timber, and the same is true for a growing number of data centres and other sectors aiming to follow the same trend.”

A new take on fire
Contrary to one’s obvious initial thoughts that wood is a fire hazard, CLT is surprisingly fire-resistant when the weight-bearing capacity and other requirements of walls and beams are correctly calculated in relation to the burning properties of the outer layer of the lumber used in building. That’s because fire typically causes a charred crust on the surface of the wood that can help protect the structure by slowing the penetration of heat into the matrix of beams and walls much better than other common construction materials will do.

While some may continue to harbour safety concerns regarding the combustibility of wood, Dubois assures us that its buildings typically exceed standard building and safety codes, holding up under high temperatures for as long as three hours—longer than steel and concrete would do in many cases.

While the company agrees that concrete and steel play a fundamental role in aspects such as foundations, the logic is that capturing carbon inside concrete works at cross purposes; instead, wood goes much further in curbing that issue as ultimately, nature knows best. “There’s a lot to be said for biomimicry,” says Dubois.

With technology becoming increasingly sophisticated, the company is encountering possibilities for growth that were unfathomable just a few years ago. Dubois points out that the software industry has revolutionized construction, making it possible for engineers to collaborate on projects from across the globe. Improved software integration also means tighter tolerances and significantly improved efficiency, not just increased capabilities. In this way, once the design is complete and all details are taken care of, mass timber construction components can be assembled much easier, significantly faster, and with less labour than ever before, certainly in comparison to traditional construction.

For this reason, Dubois believes that six- to eight-storey buildings are ideally built from mass timber. With buildings as high as 11, 13, and 25 storeys already built from this material, mass timber has asserted its power and benefits, setting a clear example of what is safely achievable.

3,000 times over
While Dubois does not believe that all construction should employ wood, his case for using more of this material in the right settings is watertight—especially considering that Nordic mass timber has been successfully used in over 3,000 completed projects, including Toronto’s T3 Bayside, the largest mass timber office building in North America.

With a team as sterling as its product, Nordic Structures has much to be grateful for. “I don’t like our team; I love them. The people I work with are tremendously visionary. They’re ingenious,” Dubois says, describing the real experience of solving challenges while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the industry’s best.

In his opinion, driven by a genuine appreciation of excellence, this passionate group is building a new state-of-the-art industry, the likes of which has not been seen before.

As building codes get up to speed with the possibilities of mass timber, the company looks forward to the positive changes this building method is expected to bring across the board, particularly in educational facilities and in rebuilding and enhancing inner city and downtown spaces that had been left to decay.

In essence, thanks to its fast and efficient systems, mass timber appears to be the silent revolution that sustainable construction has been searching for. Knock on wood.

The post The Transformative Power of Mass Timber<p class="company">Nordic Structures</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Now, growing numbers of North Americans are adopting the concept by choosing to preserve rather than replace the top-quality architectural surfaces of iconic buildings with much life left in them.

Spurred by its commitment to preserve such finishes on monuments, statues, building interiors and exteriors, and more, Stuart Dean is at the forefront of innovation in restoring, refinishing, and reviving superb original materials and craftsmanship in ways that extend beauty and function for generations to come. One could say that bringing such finishes back to life is the love of this company’s life.

Making quality timeless
While the Stuart Dean team does subscribe to keeping public spaces fresh and up to date, its strong sense of style stewardship maintains that qualité intemporelle—timeless quality—should be protected rather than sacrificed. Obviously, there are a number of pros to this approach.

On one level, managers and owners of well-designed buildings are better off taking care of the style envisioned by its original creators for the sake of provenance. Keeping original finishes intact means honoring the history and legacy of buildings constructed with a strong design ethos. From another angle, owners save money by avoiding ripping out the original wood and stone only to replace it with materials—sometimes sub-standard—at exorbitant cost, by choosing to restore.

Restoration also means that the surrounding surfaces and spaces are protected from potential damage, as replacing or retrofitting is an invasive process. Furthermore, materials left in situ are materials left out of landfills.

Beyond these advantages, customers benefit from knowing that the company thoroughly tests all its products and processes in-house before using them in the field. The team also ensures that these are the most environmentally friendly formulations possible, making it clear that it has its priorities straight.

With decades of experience, the team at Stuart Dean with its nationwide presence knows that, while too much patina can leave a surface looking tired and dated, there is very little that expert restoration cannot remedy. “These days there’s a lot of sentiment toward replacement when really there are many advantages to leaving items in situ, restoring them, and maintaining that desired aesthetic,” says Nick Oceanak, Director of Façade Restoration.

As a seasoned restoration contractor, the company has extensive experience in working on buildings that remain fully operational while renovations are underway, which often means working after hours to render surfaces like floors looking brand new. Refurbishing older materials gives the Stuart Dean team great joy as neither metals (brass, bronze, copper, and aluminum) nor other materials are always made in the same manner as in times gone by.

Starting at the top
Founded in 1932 by New York entrepreneur, Edward Joseph Degan, the company pioneered many restoration processes after landing its first job at the Empire State Building. “Our founder employed a formulation by DuPont which he realized could be useful in that situation,” says Harold Pandian, Director of Marketing and Sales Administration. This first job set the tone for the company’s future.

Today, the company prides itself on returning not only original elegance but also cost and time savings in an effective, considerate, and timely manner. That said, a deciding factor in everything it does is all-around safety. Respecting its staff and its customers in this regard is second nature.

“Our people are true craftsmen. We do things that people can’t replicate,” says Dan Wukitsch, Senior Vice President of Sales, describing the genuine sense of enthusiasm that this team of field experts exudes.

Most of the team’s success in accomplishing these complex restoration projects comes from their considerable product knowledge and nuanced extensive experience. The firm frequently finds itself partnering with chemical and coating manufacturers for the precise formulation it needs but which isn’t available in the marketplace.

Proprietary products
One such novel product is a tremendously strong clear coat that survives all weather conditions in exterior use for up to half a decade. By reverse engineering traditional clear coats, one of Stuart Dean’s development partners came up with a genuinely unique product low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) unlike anything else in its class.

This proprietary polysiloxane is a new version of traditional clear coats, developed to provide increased durability while being easy to handle and compatible with surrounding materials. It can be applied to stainless steel, treated steel, and copper substrates, as well as over physical vapor deposition (PVD) factory-applied or anodized aluminum.

Alongside such fruitful product collaborations, Stuart Dean has gained certified applicator status by product manufacturers. “Being a certified applicator of certain products gives customers a greater sense of assurance and confidence in the work that we do,” says Pandian.

There are also water-based applications that offer unheard-of pigment stability. Thanks to the smaller radius of the atoms in fluorine, their bond with larger carbon atoms is known for being one of the strongest chemical bonds in organic chemistry. This powerful bond results in tremendously high UV, chloride, and other chemical resistance.

Once this quick-dry product is fully cured—around 25 days—it displays unmatched durability compared to other products in this class. The company also recently introduced a product that prevents stains on marble countertops.

In these contexts, certification does not equate to being awarded a piece of paper acknowledging the relationship between the client and the manufacturer; instead, field staff qualify through internal training in substrate treatment, application methods, and environmental aspects when handling the product before being permitted to apply the product in the field. This means that the company’s craftsmen are well-versed in removing and reapplying coatings while protecting the integrity of substrates, a process that’s not always as straightforward as it may appear.

Here, the removal and reapplication of products is a serious matter, as many outfits claim that product removal is not an important consideration for them. “We know, having dealt with coatings since 1932, that there is no product that lasts forever outside,” says Oceanak of the promises made by some in a similar field of work.

A top team
The coatings the company applies are so good they have earned it industry accolades over the years. In 2022, at a prestigious ceremony held at the AMPP Annual Conference + Expo in San Antonio, Texas, CoatingsPro Magazine named the company winner of the Specialty Project, sponsored by APV Engineered Coatings, for its project on a federal building in Los Angeles, California. At the same time, it also received the Work it Safe award for its high safety standards.

And no wonder, either, as Stuart Dean has inspectors who focus only on ensuring that these standards are maintained. Field personnel are also thoroughly trained to couple coatings with substrates correctly. “Our people make us proud. It’s nice to walk past something that Stuart Dean has worked on,” says Oceanak, noting that the team takes tremendous pleasure in its work, making every job a memorable experience for the client.

This sense of integrity is woven into everything this close-knit group does. “We’ve done a great job of maintaining that family environment. We serve our customers with integrity. To this day, our business is built on referrals,” says Wukitsch, highlighting that the company’s reputation and sense of family were built on quality work and outstanding customer care.

With a median tenure of around 14 years, staff enjoy being here and benefit from ongoing professional development. For customers who value quality, it is reassuring to learn of the firm’s reach, completing projects throughout North America and beyond. For those who own several buildings across the region and elsewhere, and having trustworthy people invested in consistent, ideal outcomes is a significant differentiating factor for Stuart Dean.

Facing challenges
The company’s work does not only focus on restoring historic legacy buildings and monuments, however. The company’s clients all have particular needs. For those in hospitality, their guests’ needs for cleanliness and a visually pleasing environment take precedence, whereas in commercial real estate and class-A office spaces overall, long-term comfort leads the way. The firm also works in new construction where finishes can get damaged and must be corrected before delivery. In all cases, however, restoring aesthetics is the main aim.

While all projects are interesting in their way, many are also uniquely challenging—like figuring out how best to overcome the complexities of sophisticated panel systems in need of restoration on a New Jersey medical campus the company recently took on.

Comprising several buildings covered in thousands of panels, of which only around 10 percent were damaged, the sheer complexity of each panel’s unique position within the greater matrix meant that repainting was the smarter option. This saved the institution a significant amount of time, money, and above all, frustration.

Also included amongst Stuart Dean’s prestigious projects are numerous sculptures. One of these is Cloud Gate, a landmark sculpture on Grainger Plaza in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Affectionately known as The Bean, this stainless steel-clad structure was created by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor.

There is also ‘Bewitched,’ a sculpture in Salem, Massachusetts, in honor of the 1960s sitcom of the same name.

The team has carried out restoration work on surfaces as diverse as elevator interiors and antique church pews in the Church of Saint Francis Xavier, New York, NY. There was the WWII memorial and the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC, as well as a national chain legacy restaurant, once a favorite of President John F. Kennedy. The Little Tavern, another hit from the ’50s and ’60s, now also counts amongst its long list of proud projects.

Looking at the company’s next era, Wukitsch reflects on the inevitability of change. For him, the excitement of the challenges that need to be met on behalf of customers is the driving force behind innovation. One such modern product that will need refurbishment in the future is the aluminum panels currently in vogue for use in building envelopes. According to Oceanak, the finishes on these panels are typically guaranteed for two to three decades, after which the company’s advanced coatings will be needed to extend the aesthetic and lifespan of these systems.

After all, as styles change, materials change. All while Stuart Dean, of course, remains current.

The post Restore, Refinish, Revive.<p class="company">Stuart Dean</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

An influx of new homeowners to the state has had a notable effect on business. “In 2022, Florida had the highest amount of move-ins in the country,” Beckner says. “Everybody wanted to come to Florida.”

Many of these new arrivals have concerns about potential property damage. “The early forecast is for a hyperactive 2024 Atlantic hurricane season,” he says.

In addition to providing preventative measures, the company also gets a great deal of business after storms hit customers’ homes. Paradise Exteriors’ new office in St. Petersburg, Florida has seen an extraordinary amount of activity due to the extensive hurricane damage the area suffered in 2022. “Hurricane Ian hit the west coast pretty hard,” Beckner remembers. “That caused the St. Petersburg office to have a lot of growth. And so that kept us really busy there, repairing homes after that hurricane with new windows and roofs.”

Florida homeowners are unfortunately seeing the potential for storm damage reflected in their insurance prices. “Florida homeowners now pay four times the national average for home insurance,” Beckner says, “and they’re saying Florida home insurance rates could increase up to 23 percent in 2024 after they already increased around that same percentage last year.”

Paradise Exteriors is there to assist customers who are dealing with these sky-high rates. “These windows and roofing systems are going to help lower these increased insurance premiums that you’re getting.”

These systems also reduce stress and headache when a storm is approaching. “You don’t have to put up plywood, be there [to close] shutters, or any of that, along with all the other benefits of the windows and the roofing systems,” says Beckner.

One of these additional benefits is that the company’s products are energy-efficient, which is good news for both the environment and the wallet. “Along with inflation, you have the energy costs that have been increasing, and they’ve been increasing since 2021 at rates much higher than before the pandemic; they’re increasing by about 10 to 20 percent a year. By upgrading your home with new, energy-efficient windows and doors, you’re going to see a reduction—typically of 30 percent—on your energy bills. And, with a new, properly ventilated roofing system, that will also help with the reduction of energy costs.”

The company actively supports Floridians looking for ways to save money. “We’re really working with our homeowners to provide that information on how to help with their inflation cost and rising cost of insurance rates and energy rates,” Beckner says. “These windows, doors, and roofing systems quickly pay for themselves with the savings that you get.”

The State of Florida is also offering support, and the team is eager to educate potential customers about what help is available. “With My Safe Florida, any eligible homeowners that currently do not have hurricane protection for their roof or for their windows are eligible to apply for a grant,” he says. “For every $1.00 they provide, the state provides $2.00 toward the actual cost of the mitigation project, and that’s up to $10,000.” Paradise Exteriors is an authorized contractor for the My Safe Florida program. “We are happy to be part of that and helping homeowners with that program.”

This commitment to the customer is foundational to the company. “Customer service [is] still top priority at Paradise Exteriors. We believe that’s the top thing that sets us apart,” says Beckner. “We select the highest quality products with our manufacturers and provide the best warranties and also back that with our own warranties that we add. Having the top customer service of the industry is very, very important to us.”

The company is working to improve the customer experience even more. “We’re currently working with a new [customer relationship management software package] that we’ve been working with for over a year to provide a better customer experience, from the authorization of the contract to the final installation,” Beckner explains.

This software “has more automation to where the homeowners will be able to see what the status is of their project in a portal as well as other automation progress updates on their project and pictures of their finished product,” he shares. “It will be a great portal that homeowners can use that we don’t see anybody else in the industry utilizing currently. We’re excited about that.”

The team is also proactive in offering customers the best financing possible. “With the large increase in interest rates right now, a home is seeing interest rates in the upper seven percent,” he says. “Paradise Exteriors has worked with our lenders to offer interest rates as low as 4.99 percent, and we have same-as-cash financing for up to 18 months. So we really work hard on the financing side to provide lower rates than what’s offered other places in the industry, especially on unsecured loans.”

Customers may also be able to take advantage of property assessed clean energy (PACE) funding, a tool for financing energy-efficient and renewable energy projects. “We still work with PACE lenders such as Ygrene to provide PACE funding for homeowners that may not qualify for traditional financing,” Beckner explains. “As long as they have equity in their home, they are able to get a loan to upgrade their windows, doors, and roofing systems.”

After financing is secure, homeowners may be pleasantly surprised at how quickly the work is completed. “The shipping times have been reduced drastically,” he says. “They’re down to two to three weeks to get windows, where they were 12 to 16 weeks in 2021 and 2022. So that has made a large impact on how quickly homeowners can get their windows and doors installed.” Two years ago, it typically took between six and eight months to complete a project, “and now we’re seeing projects installed within the same month. So that’s really making a big difference for homeowners.”

The company is now expanding its offerings to include metal roofs. “We have recently installed some of our first metal roofing systems,” Beckner says. “The great thing about metal roofs is the insurance companies allow you to keep a metal roof longer than they would a shingle roof.” Homeowners may be able to keep a metal roof for up to twice as long, in fact. “But we see metal roofs are typically double the cost of shingle roof,” Beckner adds. “So it just depends on how long people want to stay in their homes and if they want to invest more for the look of the metal roof, for the more modern aesthetic that it has.”

Paradise Exteriors continues to grow its presence throughout the state, having expanded to the outskirts of Orlando. Previously, the company’s reach was limited to portions of the east and west coasts of Florida. Now, “we are working with a new manufacturer to where, by the end of this year, we will be able to help homeowners in the rest of Florida,” Beckner tells us. “So, we’ll be able to help everyone from Orlando, to Jacksonville, to the Panhandle, and we’re very excited about being able to finally expand to assist homeowners.”

That is not the only exciting news for the team. After reporting on the birth of Beckner’s daughter in a previous article, this time we are happy to announce the birth of a new son. Now, the Beckners will be busy installing storm protection and growing the company—while keeping up with a growing family as well.

The post Protecting Florida’s Homes<p class="company">Paradise Exteriors</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Headquartered in Piedmont, Quebec, but with a decentralized office network, DWB strongly emphasizes employee and client satisfaction and innovation. DWB’s pro-environment focus and one-stop shop service model have contributed to its rapid growth.

“If an architect wants to build a new building, they can hire us and we don’t have to talk to any third parties because we can do everything internally… Basically, the only thing we don’t do is the architecture, so that’s where [outside] architects are coming into play,” explains Jean-François Landry. Landry heads an energy and sustainability team that consists of himself and three other employees. His title is “engineer”—same as the company founder, and many others at DWB.

“There’s not much of a vertical hierarchy [at DWB]… everybody is either an engineer or a technician—it doesn’t matter. We don’t give ourselves formal titles like other companies, to show our status,” says Landry.

DWB serves the industrial, residential, commercial, recreational tourism, academic, and municipal sectors, among other markets. Specific engineering services range from feasibility studies and surveys to preliminary and final plans, site supervision, project management, cost analysis, estimates, technical inspections, and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), to name a few. In addition to traditional engineering services, DWB has also become a leader in energy modeling, which Landry describes as “trying to predict the energy consumption of a building that doesn’t [yet] exist.”

For energy modeling projects, DWB scrutinizes data and design plans to construct a computer model depicting a proposed building’s estimated energy consumption. Features that might be analyzed include the building envelope, construction materials, the HVAC system, and the number and size of windows.

Energy modeling can be used to gauge costs and help determine if a planned building meets regulatory requirements, crucial as new buildings in the province of Quebec must adhere to stringent construction codes that enhance energy efficiency.

“There’s been a huge increase in energy modeling requirements because of these codes,” says Landry. “It triggered a lot of business… [Initially] DWB could not do this type of simulation—they had to hire a third party. Now, since I joined the team, we are able to do all this work internally, which is a big plus for our company and our clients.”

Canadian government initiatives that offer incentives to develop new, energy-efficient, and affordable rental housing have also increased demand for DWB’s energy modeling services, and several high-profile clients have engaged the firm for energy modeling duties. In conjunction with a partner firm, DWB is currently undertaking a “campus-wide greenhouse gas emission reduction study,” for Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), says Landry.

University buildings are being examined for “greenhouse gas emission reduction potential,” he continues. Studies derived from DWB’s investigation could help the university reach future emission reduction benchmarks.

Landry’s team is also conducting a large-scale energy retro-commissioning project at the University of Waterloo in Southern Ontario. Engineers are examining buildings at the U of W and compiling a list of improvements that might lower energy consumption. “We’re looking at these projects in a holistic way to not only save energy but improve the overall comfort and operation of the buildings,” explains Landry of DWB’s energy-related work.

The company also aims to help clients achieve LEED and Zero Carbon Building certification (Zero Carbon is an initiative from the Canada Green Building Council to decrease the carbon footprint of buildings). DWB practices what it preaches through initiatives like making its offices energy-efficient and encouraging staff to take public transit and reduce their use of paper.

As further evidence of its commitment to sustainability, the company is incorporating more and more Cross-Laminated Timber into its work and designs. To create CLT, multiple layers of lumber are glued together to form a sturdy wooden panel. Wood structures in general boast a smaller carbon footprint than their non-timber counterparts, possess a powerful aesthetic appeal, and align with biophilia principles, Landry explains. “Architects really like wood. It’s inviting, it’s warm, it’s cozy. It gives that really nice, relaxing effect in buildings,” he states.

The company is currently working on a project involving a CLT building at UQAT (the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue). This assignment also involves the use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling, and abundant natural light.

When DWB was founded in 2002, the company’s focus was very different. Launched by structural engineer David Wayne Bennett (whose initials—DWB—formed the company name), the firm initially specialized in structural work within the mining and industrial sectors. Over the years, DWB expanded both its service offering and client base.

The company founder “started to talk with other people—mechanical and electrical engineers—to join the team, then industrial engineers, and eventually civil engineers. So, [DWB] grew organically to offer all these services,” recalls Landry.

Now, the firm continues to grow its service offerings; Landry’s energy and sustainability team was only launched two years ago. The team at DWB has also expanded, from roughly 90 employees last year at this time to 140 at the time of publication. Some of this increase in staff can be attributed to an acquisition DWB made, “but in most cases, the growth is organic.”

Once hired, DWB works hard to retain its employees by offering extensive training, mentorship, benefits, ample opportunities for personal growth, and “a really nice working environment. We encourage people to spend time with their family, and we organize activities,” Landry says.

Funding is available, for instance, for employees who want to do yoga or attend a gym, and employees can participate in group events (last December, DWB staff took part in the 24H Tremblant, a round-the-clock winter marathon in which participants ski, hike (touring), walk, run, and/or snowboard to raise money for charity). DWB wants new hires who are “motivated, have a good attitude, and want to make a real change,” says Landry.

Being able to function in a unique corporate environment is an added bonus. “DWB is very lean—we don’t have a sales team; we don’t have an official business development team per se. Everybody can participate in sales and developing the business. As soon as we make a new hire, we provide them with tools and encourage those who are ambitious to get involved in business development, talking with clients, putting proposals together. So, their business acumen becomes quite good, quite soon. That’s one of the things that makes us different; everyone can have an opportunity to participate in the business,” says Landry.

The company currently has 12 offices, up from eight last year. DWB has multiple offices in Quebec as well as branches in Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario and Moncton, New Brunswick. Expansion is often based on individual initiative: if an engineer wants to move to a new area for personal or professional reasons, and business prospects look favourable, they are encouraged to set up a new office.

This kind of employee-driven growth model is “pretty rare” in the business world, but works well for DWB, notes Landry.

Going forward, the firm plans to add more new services such as lifecycle analysis and climate resiliency studies. In a lifecycle analysis, the lifetime environmental impact of a building is estimated, while climate resiliency refers to design features that enable buildings to withstand inclement weather such as floods, hurricanes, and more.

Climate resiliency involves figuring out “how to design your buildings so they are more adapted to the future climate; I think this is really important,” Landry says. “Current codes are not looking at the future climate. You need to start thinking about what’s going to happen in 2050 or 2100, because you build buildings to last 60 or 75 years. If you don’t think about it, you might have some surprises.”

Climate-resilient features in a building might include an improved cooling system, a storm shelter for occupants, and even enhanced landscaping. Planting large trees in front of a building, for example, is a good way to “reduce the amount of solar gains that are associated with future increases in temperature.”

For promotional purposes, DWB leans heavily on social media, with profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other sites. “We have a fantastic marketing team that is producing some really beautiful material for these platforms,” Landry shares. The company also attends industry events and takes an active role at university and college career days. And DWB’s eco-friendly ethos is a powerful lure, says Landry.

“The younger generation is very interested in energy and sustainability… I spend a lot of time talking to future engineers about energy efficiency and sustainability,” he states.

Over the next few years, he would like to see his energy and sustainability team expand to perhaps a dozen people. He would also be pleased to see the overall DWB personnel continue expanding, depending on the development opportunities that come its way.

“Our company is relatively young, in terms of [people’s] ages. I think we have lots of potential to continue to grow, but we want to do it in the right way,” says Landry. “We want to constantly provide the best service possible to clients.”

The post This Engineering Firm Promotes Sustainability and Employee-Driven Growth<p class="company">DWB Consultants</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

For better or worse, we spend up to 90 percent of our time indoors. And the air quality in our work and living spaces directly impacts our well-being, a lesson learned in the pandemic. In fact, a Harvard study in the International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health found that about 35 percent of all sick days are associated with poor indoor air quality.

“It’s fascinating to see how [this] transition is happening. Before the pandemic no one was talking about indoor air quality with the same fervor that they are now,” says Aedan Fida, CEO of Blade Air in Toronto, a young, entrepreneurial company that is disrupting the air purification industry. “The desire for better indoor air quality is the key takeaway that people and building managers have as a result of the pandemic.”

Blade Air launched in 2017, and has introduced state-of-the-art, sustainable purification systems to public buildings across Canada and has improved the quality of the indoor air that many thousands of people have breathed.

Indeed, it’s amazing what a side hobby in university can spark. Joe Fida, Aedan’s brother, dealt with the stress of his engineering program by growing exotic fruit, a formidable challenge in Canada’s cold climate. So, he designed an enclosed indoor system for his growing plants.

Things worked well until he came across an inefficiency with carbon filters. They were big, heavy, and had to be replaced every couple of months, which was not easy. Joe, a natural problem-solver, decided to focus on improving efficiencies with the filter and reducing waste.

He presented the concept of a replaceable carbon filter and it resonated with Aedan, a business student at York University who originally planned to study law and have his own firm one day. But this was a big idea that also inspired his good friend and fellow business student Giancarlo Sessa.

As Aedan recalls, “The product itself didn’t necessarily matter; what mattered was the ethos of the company. We wanted to drive significant change and focus on sustainability. And when Joe brought this idea forward to us, it ticked all those boxes and we were like, ‘all right, guess we’re doing this.’” From there, they were able to get the business up and running, raising almost $500,000 while still in university between grants and strategic investors.

All this ingenuity landed the founding trio, Aedan Fida, Joe Fida, and Giancarlo Sessa on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2022. And in 2023, The Globe and Mail named Blade Air the fifth-fastest-growing company in Canada.

How does it all work? Blade Air uses a suite of technologies to address clients’ needs, helping them address their indoor air quality needs while lowering their operational, logistical, and energy spend. Its main product is the Pro Filter, an electromagnetic filter that replaces existing pleated HVAC filters. While pleated filters have been the dominant filter in use for decades, as the need for improved air quality increases, the technology from the past is no longer able to address the needs of today’s buildings and Blade Air’s Pro Filters provide an added efficiency advantage unparalleled in the market. Additionally, the air quality systems from Blade Air use limited power and last longer than standard pleated filters on the market, spelling huge sustainability and cost-saving wins for customers.

One of the company’s more prominent projects was for the Distillery District in Toronto, which is a collection of historic warehouses dating back to the early 1800s, once used for whiskey production but now home to trendy shops, restaurants, residences, and offices. In 2021, the District’s management was looking to improve the indoor air quality of the buildings. Blade Air worked out a long-term installation that would help deliver better air quality while also addressing sustainability needs.

Previously, the Distillery District system was not getting the desired IAQ results they were looking for, and it quickly became apparent that Blade Air’s Pro Filters, which capture micro particulates that standard filters allow through, were a great solution. Not only could the filter outperform a HEPA filter in the viral range, but it also had a zero retrofitting cost and is applicable for use across asset age or usage. In making this change, the team was able to lower the pressure on the system while improving indoor air quality.

From there, they tested the system in the buildings to see the difference, going to a third-party lab to take live culture samples. The results showed Blade Air was able to maintain the system airflow and improve the air quality by two-and-a-quarter times while reducing energy consumption by 70 percent. It is this benefit of also reducing energy consumption and emissions that is at the forefront of Blade Air’s solutions.

“When we think about sustainability, we think about it in two ways,” Fida explains. “There’s the impact that we have on greenhouse gas emissions: reducing the amount of waste, reducing electricity consumption in some cases, and reducing the amount of natural gas required to heat and cool a space, as well as the materials that we’re using to build our units.”

Second, he says, is the question of diverting or recycling waste to make the products sustainable, which goes back to the firm’s founding goal of creating healthier spaces for people. “We want to give them the best opportunity to have those Breathable Moments™ and not be worried about anything else that’s going on in the air.”

Sustainability is also on the minds of many company executives. And certainly, there is greater scrutiny now on how companies operate and the steps they’re taking to reduce their carbon footprint, including in their building facilities. As an example, Blade Air is presently working with a number of large organizations to outfit their office and retail locations, working with their sustainability teams to help them achieve their corporate goals.

“They view sustainability very similarly to how we view it, where it’s about the people as well as the planet,” Fida says. “So, they’re looking for a way to create a better working environment for their employees where they can enjoy the benefits of enhanced indoor air quality while also helping them work toward achieving the carbon-neutral goals that they’ve set for themselves.”

During the pilot phases of one specific project, the customer realized that the Blade Air product alone was achieving nearly 90 percent of the annual target for energy savings with the filters in place. Now the goal is to outfit all the company’s locations across Canada.

“We just focus on showing clients that we can repeat the same result time and time again and let the product speak for itself,” says Fida. “We are adamant believers in having our product validated through third-party field testing, and we understand that the clients are expecting results for their tens of thousands of people or employees who are going be in these spaces. We need to live up to the expectations that we’re setting.”

Overcoming the odds against moving from start-up to success takes a lot of work and in-the-moment learning. Fida credits the team of people he works with as integral to the company’s growth and performance—and to everyone enjoying the ride.

“I think the biggest takeaway that I’ve had as an entrepreneur is that it’s not about you. It’s not about your business partners. It’s ultimately about the team that you build and the collective goal that you work toward,” he says. “We’re just incredibly fortunate to have found them all and we’re doing our best to show our appreciation of them every day. I think one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a mentor was that, ‘It’s not how, it’s who.’”

What does the future look like for Blade Air and the air filtration industry? The company is doubling down on what has worked and what will illuminate the path forward. The team has a North American supply chain; it is using as much recyclable material as possible to build a truly green product; and it is focusing on that triple bottom line of people, planet, profit, and driving real change.

Blade Air, starting with just three people, has expanded to about 30 part-time and full-time employees and has just completed a second acquisition to support a move into the residential market. All this shows the confidence of the team and the opportunities in the market, with an eye on expanding into the U.S.

The air filtration and purification industry has been around for a long time, and many of the biggest players in the market have been there for 50 to 100 years. However, new technologies that Blade Air and others are commercializing are beginning to disrupt the space and change how air filters are designed and incorporated into buildings.

As Fida sees it: “We aren’t looking at revenue numbers, we aren’t looking at dollar figures; we’re looking at our ability to drive impact and change, and we genuinely believe that we can change the world. Our technology can move toward the carbon-neutral goals that have been set in a very meaningful and impactful way,” he emphasizes.

“Today, when you look at the Global Cooling Pledge for COP 28’s (2023’s UN Climate Change conference) announcement of a cooling reduction of 68 percent by 2050, we’re able to deliver up to a third of that target right now. You don’t have to wait another 26 years. We can drive a third of that change right now.”

The post Breathe Deep – Young Entrepreneurs Deliver Cleaner Indoor Air<p class="company">Blade Air</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

SIPs are made from two sheets of performance-rated oriented strand board (OSB) that are structurally laminated to either side of a continuous core of expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation. SIPs can be used for exterior walls and roofs—to create the structural and thermal “envelope” of a home or structure.

The core of the Insulspan product is EPS that is manufactured by sister company, Plasti-Fab. Insulspan and Plasti-Fab are both part of the parent company, PFB Corporation. Insulspan General Manager, Stephen Munn, says that this vertical integration is unique within the industry, because not only does Plasti-Fab make the EPS that is integral to SIPs, but it also manufactures the resin used to create the EPS foam.

When asked about Insulspan’s largest competitor, Munn states that their main competitor is not another SIP manufacturer, but rather they compete mainly against conventional stick framing construction. Traditional framing and insulation methods still hold the majority of market share, while the entire SIP industry is a small but growing percentage of the residential and light commercial construction business.

According to Munn, Insulspan SIPs have many advantages over other construction methods. First and most notably is the superior energy efficiency. The Insulspan SIP System provides wall and roof assemblies with higher effective thermal resistance (R-value) than other construction methods. The R-Value of an assembly is a measure of its ability to resist heat flow through it. The higher the R-Value of your wall assembly, the lower your energy costs for heating and cooling your home. SIPs increase energy efficiency by nearly eliminating air leakage, through the use of sealant at all the connections.

Secondly, the speed of construction with SIPs provides a distinct benefit over conventional framing. By utilizing the Insulspan SIP System, dry-in and cycle time can be reduced by around 50 percent or more. Constructing an SIP home can require less skilled labor on the job site, and the building envelope can be completed and ready for other sub trades sooner. Installation of the windows and doors can occur sooner, thus securing the structure against theft and keeping costs down.

Insulspan pioneered the approach of installing lumber in the factory, and offers a wide range of package options including a complete ready-to-assemble (RTA) package. Compared to other SIP manufacturers, Insulspan offers one of the most complete, ready-to-assemble packages in the industry. “Our RTA package option maximizes efficiency on the job site by further reducing installation time. This package includes the lumber splines, end plates, and window and door bucks factory installed into the panels,” says Munn.

Insulspan always has exciting projects in the works, but one recent project made headlines. The nonprofit organization, Citizen Robotics, partnered with Insulspan to build the first 3D-printed home in Michigan. Insulspan supplied SIPs for the project, which helped to create a more energy-efficient home. In fact, the home scored a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rating of 46 for its energy consumption, which is well below the average rating of traditionally constructed homes.

Another recent project Insulspan provided SIPs for is a large corporate office and training facility in Kent, Ohio. This substantial project is composed of 110,000 square feet of wall and roof panels. The customer is seeking Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the project, and the project itself involves multiple buildings with three inter-connected phases and over 70,000 square feet of interior space.

“This is an exciting project,” Munn says, “because of its sheer size and scope. It demonstrates Insulspan’s capabilities to support such a large commercial project.”

A final project that received a lot of attention from social media is one where Insulspan partnered with social media influencer, Third Coast Craftsman, to supply SIPs for his hand-cut timber frame home. The customer documented his entire journey online through Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched him build his home from the ground up. Insulspan was excited to be part of this social media phenomenon.

With housing and labor shortages in most of North America, homebuilders are seeking to find ways to build homes that meet more stringent energy codes in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Although SIPs have been around for over 40 years, sometimes it seems like they are still considered to be the “new kid on the block.” SIP manufacturers, including Insulspan, are working to increase awareness of the benefits of building with SIPs. As a result, SIPs are becoming more widely recognized and accepted across the industry, by architects and builders alike.

Insulspan continues to educate architects on commercial and institutional projects like banks, restaurants, community centers, and churches to bring awareness of how SIPs can help improve the design of these types of buildings. In addition, Insulspan partners with builders who are interested in adopting the SIP building methodology to set them apart from their competition by building with this up-and-coming construction product.

The post Structural Insulated Panels: An Innovative, Energy-Efficient Alternative to Traditional Construction Methods<p class="company">Insulspan Structural Insulated Panels</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

That’s exactly what happened on the Northglenn, Colorado City Hall project where FCI Constructors came together with Anderson Mason Dale and others to deliver a spectacular building that is redefining community.

A plan comes together
Northglenn, Colorado was in desperate need of a new city hall. With a dated building that lacked resources, space, and safety infrastructure to support employees in the provision of services to the community, it was time for change.

The City Hall project was the second phase of a three-part Civic Center Master Plan approved by Northglenn City Council in 2017. Phase one included the construction of a new recreation center that’s also home to the local seniors’ center and a theater, and the third phase will entail the redevelopment of the remainder of the Civic Center.

“FCI actually worked on the initial Master Plan scope for this campus development and within that Master Plan, we thought at the time that the City Hall project was going to go in a different location, be a different shape, and have different things around it,” says Nathaniel Sperry, Senior Project Manager with FCI Constructors.

The goals of the Civic Center Master Plan were to enhance Northglenn’s community identity through the creation of a more inviting, functional place with a mix of spaces and uses to bring the community together. It is a gathering space for the community to connect and thrive and at the heart of this development is the City Hall.

Consultation has played a significant role in the City Hall project to date, with FCI Constructors as Construction Manager/General Contractor, Anderson Mason Dale Architects as Architect, and The Cumming Group as Owner’s Representative. From the outset, the team, which included a variety of trade partners, did everything to ensure the project met the client’s vision—which was grander than first imagined.

The goals of the City Hall project were to, “be an inspiring civic resource for residents, serve as a gathering place and anchor of the Civic Center, and foster a sense of pride, camaraderie, and community,” which the building’s design and function have achieved.

Growth of a vision
From the perspective of Joey Carrasquillo, Principal at Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Northglenn took this project as an opportunity to fortify its identity as a young city with a vision for the future.

As a result, he notes, “The project began to change and transform and began to shape into something that had higher aspirations, so as those discussions began, we started to explore and define for them what some of those opportunities would be.”

In this case, it was the opportunity to highlight sustainability and design, testing the limits of what is possible with new materials, approaches, and a vision for what a City Hall looks like and how it functions.

For Carrasquillo, “The whole sustainability agenda became a significant narrative for the City of Northglenn. It’s still a relatively young city, and they are seeking identity and saw this project as an opportunity to begin shaping a path for that identity to take shape.”

It also became an opportunity for a collaborative approach to design and construction to shine. With more than 25 years of collaboration behind FCI and Anderson Mason Dale, this was another chance to demonstrate how working together in harmony can be the catalyst for project success.

Building a structure, building identity
Ground broke on Northglenn’s new City Hall on June 5, 2023, and the project topped out on November 13 of the same year. Since then, the trades teams have been working diligently to get the finishing touches on the project and the art installed in time for fall 2024. The job embodies tens of thousands of creative and labor hours, a tremendous effort by everyone.

The new building features 32,600 square feet of space complete with welcoming public spaces and community rooms. Most impressive of all, though, is the commitment to sustainability and the ability to push the limits of design to create an aesthetically attractive building that is simultaneously strongly functional.

Sperry notes of the exterior, “We used really smart high-end exterior materials: Arbor Wood, a tongue and groove paneling, and then NedZink zinc metal cladding in a couple of different profiles on the outside of the building.”

The project embraces the city’s sustainability agenda, and the new building will be Net Zero, which means it will generate as much energy as it uses or more. The building features a 196-kilowatt rooftop photovoltaic array that powers the structure.

“The building is fully electric,” says Sperry. “There is no gas service to this building, no gas loads. We’ve got a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) mechanical system and car-charging parking spots with a goal for some future locations for that as well.”

Putting Core into Colorado
Northglenn took its commitment to environmental stewardship a step further as it became apparent that the city’s vision aligned with the principles of the prestigious International Living Future Institute’s Core Green Building Rating certification (which adheres to the highest standards of sustainable design and construction), making it the first municipal building in Colorado to achieve this.

“There are currently no municipal projects in the state of Colorado that have secured Core, so it was an easy choice for Northglenn to move in that direction,” says Carrasquillo. “We pursued Core because the initiatives of the International Living Future Institute were better aligned with the aspirations and opportunities that Northglenn had.”

One of those opportunities was the ability to harvest rainwater, as the water rights in Colorado are stringent. Luckily, Northglenn operates its own water utility with its own water resource, so it invested in the capacity to store upwards of 25,000 gallons of rainwater in cisterns that will be used by the city to irrigate the low-hydration-needs landscape concept developed by the landscape team.

Carrasquillo pays tribute to the work of Martin/Martin and MIG, who served as civil engineer and landscape architect, respectively, on the City Hall project and as the original master planners for the City of Northglenn’s entire Civic Center project: “I think the site team brought a lot of collective wisdom to the City Hall project and helped us be successful in developing the land.”

Model for the future
What makes this project unique is that cross-laminated timber (CLT) was used in the building’s construction. A relatively new commodity in the U.S., CLT is typically used on square structures, and the Northglenn City Hall was anything but.

“This project will be a model that demonstrates that geometries can be manipulated and this technology executed so that it can be used for future projects that aren’t square; it will be a great demonstration of that,” says Carrasquillo. “The geometry changed quite a bit throughout the design process,” he adds, “and we were able to find that sweet spot and deploy cross-laminated timber optimally for this project. Our partners at Nordic were gracious in their involvement in finding that sweet spot.”

“That piece is really cool,” agrees Sperry, giving his perspective. “We had 300 tons of timber manufactured within a millimeter in precision. That all went up very quickly. We had that part erected in five weeks.”

As a result of the outstanding performance of all the team members, Northglenn City Hall has become an exemplary model of how thoughtfully designed buildings can shape a community and become what Carrasquillo refers to as “a house for the people; a house for the citizens of Northglenn.”

He adds, “This project is going to redefine what city halls are in today’s world. I think there is a connotation historically with city halls that they tend not to be places people want to go. I think that’s because city halls also included other programs like law enforcement and judicial courts and now, those types of programs are developing their own facilities. I think for Northglenn that’s what this city hall is all about.”

The Northglenn City Hall project demonstrates the commitment of the team of professionals who came together collaboratively to do more than build a structure; they came together to build community.

“That is the ethos of our design practice. We are about community building, and every project is nuanced and unique relative to its specific place and community. To understand those places and those specific communities is to be able to articulate a place for them, so it feels great,” says Carrasquillo. “Some projects, obviously, are more successful than others, but I think this one is beginning to reveal itself to be what I believe is a successful project.”

The post A New Home and Image for Northglenn, Colorado<p class="company">FCI Constructors & Anderson Mason Dale Architects</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Originally named Plant Brothers Corporation, the San Francisco-based construction company was the brainchild of brothers Tom, Buck, and Dave Plant. Even in the early days, the business became known for its high-quality, professional work. The first job the brothers took on was unusual, to say the least: salvaging an old sunken wooden barge and creatively transforming it into a lodge for duck hunting. Not only was the project unique, but it also set the bar for the company and its ability to successfully tackle challenging projects.

Much has changed in the world years since the three brothers founded the business bearing their family name all those decades ago, but Plant Construction’s ongoing commitment to professionalism, client service, timely project delivery, and customer satisfaction remains as strong as ever. Starting off with custom home building, then moving on to public school construction and commercial work—much of it seismic upgrading—Plant has always kept up with the times.

Responsible today for an array of services including concrete, preconstruction, construction, green building, self-performed services, and design-build, the company has amassed a massive project portfolio, earning the trust of new and repeat clients across California. And much of the company’s success comes from hiring the best people. Growing to meet the diverse needs of customers state-wide, Plant Construction is led by a strong team of highly experienced industry veterans, including construction managers and senior project managers, a director of field operations, a director of safety, and others.

This year alone, Plant Construction has been behind several standout projects. In May, the company announced that it was awarded three affordable housing works. These include returning to the historic Mission District’s Casa Esperanza, formerly known as the Eula Hotel. The company will complete the second phase of this project, which will include “the build out of support spaces with new office space and exterior enhancements,” according to Plant’s website.

To be completed for the Dolores Street Community Services—in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing—the company will also be responsible for Phase 2 of Casa Colibri, the former Mission Inn. The scope of work here encompasses a seismic retrofit, conversion of new ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) units, renovations, “and additions including office and support spaces, electrification of the existing gas hot water systems, and installation of new fire sprinkler systems,” states Plant. And as part of another affordable housing project, the team is undertaking a large exterior rehabilitation at the Dunleavy Plaza Apartments for the Mission Housing Development Corporation.

Earlier this year, Plant Construction was awarded the contract for Phase 2 of Gateway Vista West. This contract comes after the company completed a similar project in San Francisco’s North Waterfront neighborhood, Gateway Vista East. The Gateway Vista West project will see Plant Construction undertake a voluntary structural upgrade of the 22-storey structure. The work also marks the second time Plant will be working with Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers. One of California’s largest structural consulting firms focused on structural engineering, Saiful Bouquet has offices in San Diego and Los Angeles.

With a highly skilled team—including many long-tenured staff—Plant Construction takes on a range of project types, all undertaken with the utmost attention to detail and adherence to customer budgets and schedules. These projects include everything from adaptive reuse to affordable housing, hospitality works to higher education, and residential to retail, along with residential conversion, historic renovation, seismic renovation, and much more.

No matter the project type, safety on all job sites remains a cornerstone of Plant Construction’s values. With a thorough Environmental Health and Safety Plan, the company’s employees, partners, and subcontractors are equipped with the knowledge necessary to ensure safe work practices while exceeding local, state, and federal requirements.

Committed to providing clients with the most effective and seamless construction experience possible, Plant Construction continues to invest in groundbreaking technologies. Incorporating cloud-based project management software, virtual modeling, building information modeling (BIM), state-of-the-art laser scanning, and drone surveying, Plant enables clients “to make quick, informed decisions that ultimately make their projects more efficient.”

During its many successful years in business, Plant Construction has received more than 100 awards for its outstanding work, recognizing the company for its commitment to quality, project execution, and safety. Plant is honored to be recognized by many prominent associations, publications, and organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Council of Engineering Companies, California Preservation Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Retrofit Magazine, The San Francisco Business Times, and more.

Grateful for the ongoing recognition, the team at Plant Construction is a great believer in giving back. “Our commitment to building goes beyond the construction business,” states the company on its website. “A major foundation of what roots Plant in the Bay Area and brings our employees personal and professional satisfaction is our long history of supporting nonprofits that we touch through our work or through participation in our local communities.”

Over the past decade, Plant Construction has been the proud recipient of a Top 100 Bay Area Corporate Philanthropy Award, from the San Francisco Business Times. The business is also involved with other charities, foundations, and associations, including the Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco, Habitat for Humanity, the Larkin Street Youth Center, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR), and others.

Growing to encompass over 80 salaried staff and some 200 craftspeople, Plant Construction is active across California, works in Utah, and has completed work in other locations across the U.S. and Canada. Almost 80 years after it was founded by brothers Tom, Buck, and Dave Plant, the company continues living up to its slogan: “The Finest Construction Services, Efficiently Performed, Delivered on Schedule.”

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